Decentralizing The DNS System With Blockstack And Blockchain Technology

One of the many areas where blockchain technology could make a big impact is in the world of domain names and DNS servers. If we were able to decentralize DNS services, domain names would be protected far more securely. Such a technological feat would also make it much easier to transfer ownership of a domain name. Blockstack seems to be thinking along those same lines, as they have proposed a blockchain-based DNS system.

Blockstack Wants To Decentralize DNS

It is not the first time blockchain technology is mentioned in the sense to decentralize domain name services. One of the earlier forms of digital currency ,called Namecoin, aimed to do exactly that, although the project never managed to gain any major transaction. Perhaps the concept was just way ahead of its time at that stage.

The new proposal by Blockstack would cryptographically protect registered domain names by using distributed ledger technology. Not only will this bring additional levels of security to owning a domain name, but it will make administration a lot easier. More importantly, a decentralized DnS service would nullify censorship attempts, as there is no central party to control the service.

Very few people have considered the blockchain to be a valuable ally in the world of domain names, but it turns out the solution solves a lot of problems. Even linking domain names to individual IP addresses is a possibility with distributed ledger technology. Such a service would also prevent domain hijacking, as there are no central records to hack or modify.

Putting this into a functional prototype will be a challenge for Blockstack though. The Blockstack community would be adding a new layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, running on dedicated Blockstack nodes. Every node is responsible for broadcasting and processing domain name transactions. This would include transfers of existing domain, registration of new domain names, and even data updates.

Adopting this solution might happen much sooner than people would think though. Every Blockstack node acts as both a DNS tool and a regular Bitcoin node at the same time. The Blockstack code is available on GitHub, and the whitepaper can be found here for more information. There is plenty of documentation available as well, giving interested users and developers an excellent opportunity to find out more about we can decentralize the domain name service.

About The Author

JP Buntinx is a 30-year old FinTech and Bitcoin enthusiast living in Belgium. His passion for finance and technology made him one of the world's leading freelance Bitcoin writers, and he is working to achieve the same level of respect in the FinTech sector.